The identity of the woman accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs and former Bad Boy Entertainment Holdings president Harve Pierre of sexually assaulting her as a teen could soon become public information if a judge rules in favor of a motion Combs filed with the court this week.
In December, the two high-profile men were named in a suit claiming that they “gang raped” Doe in 2003, when she was 17 years old.
The unidentified woman alleged that she was first forced into sexual acts with Pierre in a Detroit club, “sex trafficked” after being flown on a private jet to New York to meet Diddy, and then provided drugs and alcohol before the alleged sexual assault took place. At the time of the alleged incident, the famed record producer would have been 34 years old.
On Jan. 17, the hitmaker’s legal counsel submitted a request to have their motion of opposition to the claims sealed. While the woman’s name is not listed in motion, Attorney Jonathan D. Davis stated that the “plaintiff has a public-facing identity that could be potentially determined from the content of the Opposition Brief.”
If the request is denied, they have asked that their opposition motion be added to the public docket.
Meredith Firetog, an attorney for the accuser, issued a statement on X slamming the men for seeking to remove Jane Doe’s anonymity shield, “It is disgraceful that Combs and Pierre would seek to publicly expose the identity of a woman who alleges they raped her when she was a seven-teen-year-old high school student,” Firetog wrote.
Statement from Wigdor Partner Meredith Firetog: "It is disgraceful that Combs and Pierre would seek to publicly expose the identity of a woman who alleges they raped her when she was a seventeen-year-old high school student. It is clear that Combs and Pierre’s only defense to… https://t.co/NyaLAKQ239
— WigdorLaw (@WigdorLaw) January 18, 2024
“It is clear that Combs and Pierre’s only defense to these allegations will be to shame our client, cause her to be saddled with unwanted public attention about a horrific event in her youth, and will discourage her from pursuing justice,” she continued. “This is exactly why courts allow plaintiffs like Ms. Doe to proceed under a pseudonym, and we will vehemently fight to protect the privacy interests of our client.”
On social media, one person suggested the music veteran’s tactic was a ploy to deter additional alleged misdeeds from coming to light. “Nah he just don’t want us to know all that was alleged,” they wrote. Another Instagram user commented, “Her identity is irrelevant if the accusations are true. Anyways, I smell a settlement coming.”
In the suit, Doe’s counsel stated that “defendants have indicated that they refuse to consent to Plaintiff’s request” to pursue her claims with anonymity. The document goes on to state that if the woman’s identity were to become known to the public, she would face “significant psychological harm” from reliving the trauma in front of the world.
The 2022 BET Lifetime Achievement Award recipient’s mounting legal troubles signaled, to some, a #MeToo movement in the music industry in November. At the time, he was sued by ex-girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura for years of alleged abuse and claims of coerced sexual encounters with male sex workers for Diddy’s alleged voyeuristic enjoyment.
The exes reached an undisclosed settlement within 24 hours of the claims making headlines. Soon after, the disgraced mogul was named in another suit by Joi Dickerson-Neal. The woman alleges that she and her friend were raped simultaneously by Diddy and singer Aaron Hall.
